A Conversation With An Artist

I recently had the opportunity to put a few questions to the artist who designed the cover images for 'Called Out Of Darkness'. I haven't met Caio Lima for many months since he stayed in our home during his studies. Even though he's in another continent doing things I will never do, reading his answers to my questions brought him very close again and I feel glad that I got to know him.

John Peace: Please tell us where you live and what you’re doing these days.

Caio Lima: I live in a small town called Moreno close to a region capital, Recife. Since I've just finished my undergraduate program I'm doing freelance works, like 'Called out of Darkness' and some game art.

JP: Are you still volunteering in a small art school for local kids?

CL: Yes, I recently started a new study group, the kids now have grew up a little bit and some of then are also starting their own projects and works. We now are more focused on drawing fundamentals and improvement on our art. The project is an independent initiative of mine, a local school support us by offering a room and equipment.

JP: I remember you enjoyed drawing superhero-type figures and anime (I think it's called that). What other art have you done that was similar to your Called Out Of Darkness cover art?

CL: I started to make a 'medieval fantasy RPG' themed series of illustrations, based on the characters of my Dungeons and Dragons group, in a similar style, using digital painting. I've also worked on some  game projects which I had the freedom to apply this style as well. You can find them on my facebook page: www.facebook.com/ilustralima/ and behance: www.behance.net/ilustralima

JP: Finally, let us into some of your secrets. How do you get your ideas for your art?

CL: That's a good question. The ideas usually come from short insights, brainstorming sketches, experiences, things that I read or watch. Since I've got an idea I like to refine it and experiment the possibilities of it. Working in a group the ideas also come from feedback and free talks, that's one of my favourite ways because we can achieve ideas and results you would hardly get only by yourself.

Called Out of Darkness - Cover Art!

I feel that I have spent the past year and a half making excuses for not finishing 'Called Out Of Darkness', but now it's so close to publishing!

See the new title picture on at the top of the Facebook page: this is Caio Lima's artistic interpretation of a key scene in the story. I love it. But it's so different from the Called To Battle cover, which was a fair bit different from The Calling's.

Drokstrak looms over Valin in the new cover image. Does Valin stand a chance?

Anyway, my next mission is to get the image and the story itself onto Kindle and publish it on CreateSpace.

Meanwhile I will try to get a few words out of Caio Lima about his art studies and what he's doing in Brazil.

Called Out of Darkness - Cover Art!

I feel that I have spent the past year and a half making excuses for not finishing 'Called Out Of Darkness', but now it's so close to publishing!

See the new title picture on at the top of the Facebook page: this is Caio Lima's artistic interpretation of a key scene in the story. I love it. But it's so different from the Called To Battle cover, which was a fair bit different from The Calling's.

Drokstrak looms over Valin in the new cover image. Does Valin stand a chance?

Anyway, my next mission is to get the image and the story itself onto Kindle and publish it on CreateSpace.

Meanwhile I will try to get a few words out of Caio Lima about his art studies and what he's doing in Brazil.

Book Covers

While I love sketching and imagining what the scenes from the book would look like, I know I'm not much of an artist. So I have recruited my friend Caio Lima to work on the front cover picture for Called Out Of Darkness.

Meanwhile, i wanted to try my hand anyway and design a quick cover for a one-off copy I'm going to order so I can proof-read the book more easily. My son Daniel makes a special appearance as Valin.

It's not meant to represent any one scene from the story - just the idea of a wild, unexplored, ancient tangle of places linked with portals.

I'm hoping to see the first fruits of Caio's work very soon.

Caio, by the way, is from Brazil and stayed in our house for a while when he was studying graphic design at the local college. He won a Brazilian government scholarship to get that far. Now he's back home in Brazil.

I'll give a preview of his cover once I have something to show!

Called out of the Study - Finished at last!

Yesterday while waiting for my son to finish his football (a.k.a. soccer) practice I typed in what might be the final words to Called Out Of Darkness. What a relief! All I have to do now is read through it at least twice and edit it, get a second and hopefully third person to read it and give an opinion, then find an artist to do a cover.

Then I will be able to send it off to Amazon and CreateSpace and it will be (independently) published.

If you would like to read through the draft and give me constructive, honest, helpful criticisms, please let me know. You can contact me at rjpeace (squiggle) 123mail (dot) com.

For those who are interested, my word processor tells me the story contains about 108,000 words. That's quite an increase on Called To Battle, which reached 82,000.

I was hoping to fit in a post giving an opinion on The Force Awakens and The Martian. That might come later!